Professional Development

LEGO Education has launched a new education community — LEGO Education Master Educators — and has named 110 members to its initial cohort, Applications will soon be accepted from educators around the world.

A group of organizations announced plans to launch a graduate-level educator preparation program for Colorado teachers, intended to help them gain the credentials they need to teach STEM classes in K-12. The first focus of "STEMpath" will be computer science.

The program is available as a self-paced online course or as a blended course. The online option allows teachers to complete the course via MakerBot University at their own pace and to complete an assessment at the end to earn a certificate. It is designed to take approximately five to 10 hours to complete and costs $99.

Amazon is committing $50 million to computer science education in the United States with new programs supporting high school and early undergraduate students, including financial aid to help schools bring AP CS courses to their students.

The $2.8 million from the National Science Foundation will cover tuition and fees for teachers working in middle and high schools to earn their master of education degrees with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math; they'll also receive a $10,000 annual stipend for four years afterwards to train other teachers in schools serving populations of students who are under-represented in the STEM fields.

Wonder Workshop, provider of educational robots, has launched the Teach Wonder initiative, a new program that leverages nonprofits to give teachers the skills they need to bring coding and robotics into their classrooms.

According to 100Kin10, the "highest-leverage root causes" for the current STEM teacher shortage are linked to school culture and, in particular, to the culture of professional development, collaboration and accountability. According to a teacher survey, 69 percent of respondents said their principals give "little to no time for them to collaborate and learn from other STEM teachers in their school or district."